bhAvataranga

Waves of Sentiment
Published in 1946, this first collection of poems is not different
from those which were being published at that time either in terms
of idiom or in terms of subject matter. Most of the poems are poetical
in the obvious sense of the word. What is important in this
collection, in retrospect, is the "Byronism" in some of the poems.
The element of violence, even masochistic violence, in a poem like
kallAgu, kallAgu ( Turn into Stone, Turn into Stone )
which is addressed to the poet himself, indicates that Adiga's
romanticism was not a pose or a mere literary stance. One feels that a
n individual and powerful sensibility was trying to find a suitable
form to express itself even in this first collection of poems. Adiga's
restlessness with literature of his times and his desire to blaze a
path of his own is reflected in the first poem in this collection
where he complains that he's tired of repeating what others have said.